Darfur endures fresh round of violent attacks

About 50 armed militiamen on horseback reportedly attacked a group of women and children who had been trying to collect firewood near Nyala, the provincial capital of South Darfur, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told journalists in New York. - UN News Service 7 Sep 2006 - excerpt:

Earlier this week, as many as 10,000 locals protested in Nyala against last Thursday’s Security Council resolution calling for the deployment of a UN peacekeeping force in Darfur. The demonstrators threw stones at the offices and vehicles of the UN and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

Mr Dujarric added that in North Darfur on Monday, five armed men opened at AU staff at the Kassab camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs). No casualties were reported, but six bullets penetrated the AU post at Kassab.

Photo: Undated picture released by the UN mission in Sudan in May 2006 shows government army forces redeploying from south to the north of 1-1-56 line, through the Nile River from Juba to Khartoum. The UN Security Council has overwhemingly approved the deployment of as many as 17,000 UN peacekeepers to Sudan's strife-torn Darfur region to take over from a cash-strapped African Union force. (AFP Aug 31 2006/UNMIS-HO/File)



Photo: Sudanese demonstrators protest against the "western colonialists", in reference to the US and Britian, who are backing a UN resolution to call for deployment of a UN force in Darfur, outside the UN HQ in Khartoum August 30, 2006. (AFP/Isam Al-Haj)